Whatever Happened to... Robot Jones?
Whatever Happened to Robot Jones? (usually shortened to Robot Jones) is an American animated television series created by Greg Millerfor Cartoon Network, and the 12th of the network's Cartoon Cartoons. The show centers on a teen-aged robot attending a suburban middle school in a futuristic 1980s world. Premise The series centers on Robot Jones (voiced by a text-to-voice program in season 1; Bobby Block in season 2), who, as his name suggests, is a robot who lives in a small city in Delaware, in a futuristic version of the 1980s in which robots are commonplace.1 Robot attempts to learn of human nature by attending Polyneux Middle School, where he makes three new friends: Timothy "Socks" Morton (Kyle Sullivan), a tall boy who loves rock music; Mitch Davis (Gary LeRoi Gray), aheadphones-wearing boy whose eyes are hidden by his long hair; and Charles "Cubey" Cubinacle (Myles Jeffrey), a shorter boy who loves video games and wears a Pac-Man T-shirt. He also meets Shannon Westerburg (Grey DeLisle), a girl he develops a crush on, because of her large retainer and metal prostheticleg. In each episode, Robot, sometimes prompted to by his parents, explores a concept average teenagers usually face in their everyday life, such as gym class, or taking a part in a competition. Robot must submerge himself in the episode's title subject in order to fully understand it, while doing as much as he can to fit in with his human counterparts. The situations he finds himself in are very much like those most awkward adolescents can relate to, but are made worse by Robot's social ineptitude and others' lack of understanding. As Robot gets settled in at school, he begins taking part in exploring humanoid concepts of his own will. Many of the situations Robot finds himself in, which are not due to his parents insisting, are a result of Robot trying to get closer to Shannon. Examples of this would be Socks convincing him to go camping in Summer Camp, or discovering the ability to feel jealous in Jealousy. In some episodes, the villain is not one of the enemies Robot makes at the school, but a complex social idea that he either cannot wrap his head around, such as puberty or popularity, or refuses to accept altogether, such as working for a wage. While most of the school tends to avoid Robot, they often are oblivious to his existence, due to his polite nature and shortness. However, among the enemies that his good grades, poor social skills, and status as a robot earn him are a technophobic, raving Principal, Mr. Madman, a jealous and insecure math teacher, Mr. McMcMc, and two genius twin brothers who look nothing alike, Lenny and Denny Yogman. At the end of most episodes, Robot makes a data log entry, in which he states what he learned that day and what conclusions he has arrived at on humanity, which are often not positive. The opening sequence of the show, in which Robot Jones is assembled in a factory and then inserted into a school bus, is an homage to the opening sequence of 1980s children's show You Can't Do That on Television, which starts with a similar animation of children being assembled in a factory and poured into a school bus. At the beginning and end of the intro where the title of the show is spoken, a group of young children voices say the "Whatever Happened to..." part in unison, while the "...Robot Jones" part is done by a Macintosh Macintalk voice known as Trinoids. The first season also had kids speaking out the title cards, which was done away with during season two, although some season 2 episode titles are spoken by voices of the characters, like Mitch saying "Garage Band" or Madman saying "Hookie 101". Production Greg Miller's original series pilot aired on Cartoon Network on June 16, 2000, in a contest featuring 10 animated shorts to be chosen for a spot on the network's 2001 schedule.2 During the weekend of August 25–27, 2000, all 10 pilots aired as part of a 52-hour marathon called "Voice Your Choice Weekend", in which viewers would vote for their favorite pilots.23 While Grim & Evil won the contest with 57% of the vote, Robot Jones came in second place with 23% and was given its own series run beginning July 19, 2002.4567 Robot Jones's animation style can be seen as a throwback to 1970s and 1980s cartoons such as Schoolhouse Rock!, with an intentionally messy and rough look. The artistic style seems to be influenced by Paul Coker and Jolly Roger Bradfield. The series' animation technique is different from most American cartoons from the early 2000s; it was animated with traditional cel animation, at a time when many American cartoons had switched to digital ink and paint(possibly due to the 1980s settings).1 The show was animated at Rough Draft Studios at Seoul, South Korea. Greg Miller stated in an interview on Facebook that he used a Microsoft Word 98 text-to-voice software for Robot's voice during production for season one, but after the first season was completed, the executives of Cartoon Network found Robot's automated voice to be unusual and requested Miller to find a "more Hollywood voice actor." Bobby Block was chosen to take the role of Robot in season two, hence re-dubbing all of his lines in all the episodes of the first season and even in the pilot episode. Robot Jones' automated voice was also recorded for production of the second season, but because the voice change happened during the production of those episodes, this voice was never dubbed into the final prints. In that interview, he also said that he would want to do a revival of Robot Jones but it would be up to Cartoon Network and there has not been any updates as of 2017. After waning support from the network executives, constant time slot changes, and steps to redevelop the series (including re-casting the voice of Robot), Greg Miller left the show and Robot Jones was cancelled during its second season, leaving some of the remaining episodes (that were put into production at the moment) to be left unfinished, including one episode involving the history of robotics, another episode involving Robot guest-starring on "The Soapy Winfall Show", and a planned ending where Robot rallies a robot army to eliminate the human population (which canonically happened even though it was never seen). Characters Main * Robot Electro Jones (voiced by a text-to-voice program's 'Junior' voice in season one and Bobby Block in season two + redubbed reruns of season one) is a robot who does whatever he can to fit into human society, and often encountering problems in doing so. He is specifically a "KX-8" model, as he claims to be in one episode, developed and produced by a company called JNZ Robotics. Although his real age is unknown, it is presumed that he is programmed to be an adolescent, thereby fitting in with the middle schoolers he is observing. His body is painted red with black stripes on the bottom. Among his humanoid features, he has a set of large yellow eyes, which also function as "cameras" to analyze objects and humans as well as for x-ray vision. Robot's eyes also flash on and off when he talks, rather than moving his mouth. His "brain" resembles a giant light bulb, which screws to the top of his head. The Yogman Twins make it one of their great missions to obtain Robot's brain, implying that it contains all of Robot's life essence, although being without his brain does little but slows down Robot's thought process, as seen in Electric Boogaloo. Whenever the day ends, he adds something to his memory called "Data Log Entry," which he uses to recall what he learned through the experience. * Timothy "Socks" Morton (voiced by Kyle Sullivan) is the best friend of Robot Jones. He is quite a fanatic to rock music. Though he typically mentors and provides Robot with reassurance as best as he can, he has a realistic cap to his understanding, and can lose his temper with Robot, as show in Family Vacation. In his first appearance in the Pilot, he was a student in Mr. McMcMc's class who commented positively on Robot challenging McMcMc,and had no name. Unlike Mitch and Cubey, is never revealed how he became Robot's friend, let alone his closest. He has blond curly hair and wears a green jacket. He is roughly 12 years old. * Charles "Cubey" Cubinacle (voiced by Myles Jeffrey) is the shorter friend with dark, straight hair, sunglasses with window blinds for lenses, and roller skates. He is a video game lover, and became friends with Robot in Electric Boogaloo with that in common. He is roughly 12 years old. * Mitchell "Mitch" Freeman Davis (voiced by Gary LeRoi Gray) is a lad often seen wearing headphones, a red sweater and sandals. His eyes are obscured by his long hair. Like Cubey and Robot, he also enjoys video games, and appears more often with Cubey than either appear without each other. It may be assumed from this Cubey and Mitch are best friends. Mitch is also roughly 12 years old. * Dad Unit (voiced by a text-to-voice program's 'Ralph' voice) is Robot's father, specifically a KC-213 Unit. When he says something, he often says it three times; one example would be "Listen to your mother! Listen to your mother! Listen to your mother!" as said in the second pilot "Electric Boogaloo." He has only one arm on the top of his head, wears a tie and in his focus on tasks he often gets into shenanigans such as smashing through walls. He is very no-nonsense and easily annoyed, which often results in him causing destruction of some kind. He is very protective of his family, and will punch out a supposed peeping tom spying on his wife, as seen in Hookie 101, or threaten anybody who comes too close to his house, such as the mailman in "Parents." * Mom Unit (voiced by Grey DeLisle) is Robot's mother, specifically a JUN-77. She is pink in color, has one eyeball which is a red camera lens, and her arms are gas pump hoses with nozzle-like hands which she uses for giving fuel to her fellow units. Like Dad Unit, she seems to generally have a no-nonsense attitude. Mom Unit also spends time at home drilling holes in the front yard looking for more sources of oil whenever she runs out, as shown in "Parents." She is more verbose than Robot's father, and often it is she who is explaining or instructing Robot on what task he will complete in a given episode. Though very intelligent, she herself is bewildered by human behavior, and uses her own questions to prompt Robot's next social assignment, such as in Cube Wars. Recurring Characters * Shannon Westerburg (voiced by Grey DeLisle) is a girl whom Robot becomes a crush with because she has more mechanical attachments than any human he has ever seen, specifically a large orthodontic appliance and a prosthetic leg. Shannon talks with a lisp. Although she is sometimes friendly to him, as seen in "Embarrassment", "Garage Band" and "House Party," Shannon doesn't socialize too much with Robot unless he approaches her. Depending on the episode, it is unclear if she realizes that Robot has a crush on her. Depending on the episode, again, she may consider him anything from a close friend, to a pest, to a nobody. Despite this, there is some evidence that Shannon may be harboring at least a fondness for Robot in return, if not romantic feelings. Because Shannon's better treatment of Robot comes about when she is alone with him, it may be speculated that she actually likes Robot and is afraid of anybody finding out, least her own social reputation be worse. However, too little episodes exist to truly prove this as what drives her erratic behavior throughout the series, and some people chalk it up to disagreeing writers. She is not a technophobe, as seen in "Jealousy", when she had a crush on a handsome android named Finkman. Shannon is socially awkward herself, as seen in "Hair", whens she pestered a boy named Frederico trying to eat his lunch. She is roughly 12 years old, and it has never been revealed how her leg became amputated. * Lenny and Denny Yogman (voiced by Josh Peck and Austin Stout respectively) are notorious young genius brothers and they are the main antagonists of the show. They wear red hats that resembles the 1980s bandDevo's energy dome hats, yellow shirts, green shorts, and black/white sneakers. Lenny is tall while Denny is short. They do whatever they can to take Robot's brain, as they believe that stealing it will allow them to "rule the school". Lenny mentions in "The Yogmans Strike Back" that he plans to it to "Brainwash the principal, and abolish PE forever!" * Principal Samuel Madman (voiced by Maurice LaMarche in the pilot and Jeff Glen Bennett in the series) is the principal of Polyneux Middle School. His mustache and haircut resembles that of Adolf Hitler; as such, he is very tyrannical to Robot. He is afraid of technology as a whole, as seen in "Sickness", "Parents" and the pilot episode. * Mr. McMcMc (voiced by Maurice LaMarche in the pilot and Rip Taylor in the series) is Robot Jones' math teacher. Like most of the staff at Polyneux, he is very childish and also extremely insecure about his intelligence, as seen in "Math Challenge". * Clancy Q. Sleepyjeans (voiced by David Koechner) is the school janitor. He owns a vacuum cleaner which he names "Dust Buddy," whom Robot built friendship with after learning that humans and robots were never designed to co-exist. Clancy also has a job in the school's safety patrol. He once let Robot take part in the school's safety patrol in "Safety Patrol", but Robot turned out to be enforcing the rules very strictly which soon leads the entire school to be thrown into detention. Clancy also partnered with Mr. McMcMc in a math competition in "Math Challenge". * Mr. Workout (voiced by Dee Bradley Baker) is the PE teacher in Polyneux Middle School. He forced Robot to take a shower in "PU to PE", resulting in him being electrocuted inadvertently by Robot. He later appeared in "Growth Spurts" with little impact on the plot, alongside an unnamed mustached coach. * Mrs. Raincoat (voiced by Grey DeLisle) the English teacher. Robot struggles in her classes, and she sometimes has to discipline him for causing havoc. * James Nob (voiced by Gedde Watanabe) is the owner of Nob's Arkaid, where Robot and his friends hang out. He keeps telling kids that they're breaking his arcade machines, every time they play with them. In "Hookie 101", it is revealed that his arcade gives a discount on game tokens during school hours. * Gramps Unit (voiced by a text-to-voice program's 'Trinoids' voice) is Robot Jones' grandfather. Gramps Unit sounds like Robot Jones' father, but he could be the dad of Dad Unit & Mom Unit. It is shown in "Vacuum Friend" that he strongly dislikes humans and wishes for machines to take over from mankind as rulers of the planet. However, he cares deeply for his grandson, as seen in "House Party". Episodes Pilot (2000) Season 1 (2002) Season 2 (2003) Broadcast After production for the show ceased, the series continued to air reruns for a few more months throughout 2003 and 2004, before being removed from the network's schedule. Despite the show's short-lived run, the series was also available for viewing on Cartoon Network Video for short periods of time before being removed. Unlike other Cartoon Network shows, this show was not included as a bonus cartoon on any Cartoon Network VHS releases. From 2005 to 2008, Robot Jones returned sporadically in reruns on The Cartoon Cartoon Show, along with segments of other Cartoon Cartoons from that time period. From 2015 to 2017, the show aired reruns on Cartoon Network's Latin-American sister network Tooncast. As of 2017, Cartoon Network has no intention of releasing the show for consumer purchase on digital retailers such as iTunes, Amazon, Hulu and Netflix, moving the show to its sister channel Boomerang, or even physically releasing the show on a DVD set anytime soon despite its major cult following.